Biden: “Told ya I
shouldn’t have dropped out.”
Us: “Told ya you
should have dropped out earlier.”
Some observations
about the recent disaster of an election: A political earthquake on a level
with (and hopefully not the impact of) the 1980 Presidential election.
And then I’ll give my
suggestions of what we Ds need to do better going forward.
Things I probably see a little, or even a lot, differently
from what I’m seeing written anywhere else:
1 – They say the Biden administration didn’t pay enough
attention to the working class.
The Biden administration:
-
Tried to increase the minimum wage but was
stymied by the Republicans’ filibuster
-
Supported strikes by walking union picket line
-
Created blue-collar jobs with the CHIPS Act and
Inflation Reduction Act with major investments in manufacturing,
infrastructure, semiconductors, and non-fossil fuels
-
Helped secure union pensions that were
underfunded
-
Tried to help low-income folks who were burdened
with student loans with outrageous interest rates
-
Supported more vigorous antitrust enforcement to
inhibit giant corporations from driving up prices further
-
Supported stronger enforcement of labor laws
-
Fought to crack down on junk fees across
industries and ban fees for essential bank services
Doesn’t sound like Biden and Harris "abandoned
working class people" to me.
2 -The Dems emphasis on subgroups (I’m not going to
call them minorities because that implies race and I am referring to gender
issues and gender identities as well) was extremely counter-productive. Those
campaign obsessions alienate more people than they bring in. Once we are in
power, we can and should focus on helping those communities, but they should
not be the focus of our speeches or campaigns. (I’ll write more about this in
the suggestions section below.)
3 –More specifically to that point, supporting trans
males participating in girls or women’s sports is a losing issue. According to exit polls, the single biggest reason given by swing voters who voted for Trump was that they agreed with the statement that Kamala was "focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues than helping the middle class." Eek!
4 – We missed the opportunity to tell people that fewer
people are now crossing the border than when Trump left office (steps it took them
waaay too long to implement) and to tell people that inflation the last 6
months has been less than the last 6 months of the Trump presidency.
5 – Many people are afraid that this election proved that
America is not ready or willing to elect a female President and I disagree. I
think this proves that the first woman to be President will be a Republican.
Or a woman who speaks as infrequently about perceived women-centered issues as
Kamala did race-related issues. She will need to make men at least as much a
focus of her campaign as women, if not more so, to make men comfortable voting
for her.
6 – The Trump campaign constantly focused on the importance
of, and support for, men. The Harris campaign never once spoke to that but
never missed a chance to emphasize their support for women and women’s issues. It
seems clear based on the voting results that a surprising number of women
are more comfortable living in a society that emphasizes the old school, traditional
roles for men and women. We already know many men feel that way for
obvious, if unfortunate, reasons.
So What Now What
Well, not really “So what”, because what just happened will
take a long, long time to forget, or at least shake off. (Unfortunately, I
think we’ll get over it psychologically faster than the country, and possibly
the world, will recover from the negative impacts.) But in the spirit of moving
on, and trying to not let this ever, ever happen again, here are the steps I
think Dems need to make:
1 - In the disaster, I find one positive: With more
subgroups voting for Republicans, I’m desperately hoping it will lead to a complete
removal of our party’s obsession with identity politics. I just don’t see the political
advantage of any even slight reference to helping any subgroup. Every policy
should benefit ALL working class – middle income and low income – people.
It’s clear that we Dems
will support women and gays and trans kids but I’ve heard no mention of men,
especially husbands and fathers…and potential fathers-to-be. And heck – boys too.
I know – “wah”, right? We’ve had most of the power for the entire history of
our civilization. But males die by suicide three to four times more often than
do women. Far fewer males are now going to college than women. I’m not saying
men have it tougher, but we have issues that need to be spoken to and validated
too. Or better, just leave specific reference to either out of the campaigns. No
need to pander to anyone based on gender, race or sexual identity.
2 - This would make many of my friends’ heads explode, but abortion
is not purely a women’s issue! God bless Michelle Obama for being the first
person I’ve heard, public or private, well, besides me, to acknowledge
this.
But she didn’t even go far enough. This is particularly
an issue for low-income people, both men and women. And if abortion is
taken off the table, so to speak, and women are forced to give birth, that will
impact both parents for the rest of their lives. Preferably equally, but at
minimum, substantially.
3 - Admit that NAFTA was a
mistake. And now we need to show
that we will do everything in our power to reverse the impact of that infamous bipartisan
trade agreement.
4 - People love lists. Give it
to them and don’t be vague. Use more
easily understood charts and graphs to show clearly how our policies increase
the deficit at a far slower rate than the Republican plans that benefit the wealthy.
Identify the wealthy and corporations as the Republican favorite special
interest groups. Charts and graphs show how statistically, so many areas have
been better under a Dem Presidency than under Rs: crime, the deficit, the stock
market, oil production and especially job creation, manufacturing jobs in
particular.
Here, I’ll help.
Democrats will:
1 –Aid and protect you with:
- better access to health care
- job-training
- adult education of any kind, including
- free classes on job-related computer
skills, from spreadsheets to coding
- free classes at community
colleges or job-training-related adult evening classes at your local high
school.
2 - Reduce the strangulating
power that corporations have over our lives that keep all of us from a better
life.
3- Reject corporate welfare
(subsidies and tax credits to particular companies and industries unrelated to
the common good).
4 - Incentivize corporations to
share their profits with their workers.
5 - Cut off the limit on employer
contributions to your personal Social Security fund and reinstate the social
security tax for earners over $400,000
6 - Put American citizens’ needs
ahead of anyone entering our country illegally
7 - Limit the power of investment
houses to buy up houses and hold them from the market in order to force an
increase in housing sale costs
8 - Pass a law requiring term
limits for all federal and state level politicians
9 - Institute age-limits for
Supreme Court justices
10 - Nominate justices who will
overturn Citizens United reducing the role of money from billionaires
in politics
11 - Only involve our military
to fight wars that have an impact on our national security
12 – Reduce unnecessary overseas
military installations and use the money to strengthen our factory towns
13 – Commit to a full audit of
the nation’s drinking water systems and make repairs a top priority, giving
everyone access to clean water
14 - Commit to oppose any hate
speech against people who have different political opinions from ours. Our
fellow American citizens are not the enemy within.
15 - Will do everything we can
to keep the government out of your life…unless you actually need or want its
help. If the private sector can do it better and for less cost, the government
shouldn’t be doing it at all.
16 –Will give special attention
to supporting small businesses, which create more jobs than all the Fortune 500
companies combined. This includes removing burdensome regulations and unnecessary
government-imposed requirements.
17 – Will make sure all spending
on our national defense is spent efficiently and is only directed toward the
most up-to-date weaponry
18 – Make sure our veterans have
access to free mental healthcare for life
19 – Give incentives to
corporations of any size to provide free onsite childcare
And lastly, never forget to
remind people how wonderful they are. The best of what makes America great isn’t
based on who we vote for. It’s what we do every day regardless of our party affiliation:
getting our kids off to school, shopping, making dinner, going to religious
services, volunteering at the food bank, cutting the grass for a sick friend or
neighbor regardless of what their voter registration card says, caring for our
elderly parents, and yes, maybe even running for public office.
As Nicholas Kristof wrote, “If
Democrats can keep the conversation on minimum wages, child care, unions, jobs,
tax increases on the rich and access to health care, they can compete for
working-class voters of all complexions. But the first step may be the most
difficult: Democrats will have to swallow their pride and show more respect
toward working-class voters who just rejected them and elected their nemesis.”
And finally, as James Brown
said, “People feel you before they hear you.” I have plenty of people in my
life whom I love and respect, who are thoughtful, loving, supportive people…who
vote straight Republican, yes, even including for Donald Trump. We need to validate
and try to understand their feelings and beliefs, just as we’d ask that they do
the same of us.
Thanks for making it all the way through. Now...what did I get wrong or...right?
